The present embodiments relate to spectral Doppler ultrasound. By transmitting a plurality of pulses (pulsed wave (PW)) or a continuous wave (CW) at a single gate location, a spectral Doppler response is generated in response to received echo signals. The frequency spectrum of the object's motion or flow for a single spatial region is estimated and displayed as a function of time. Spectral Doppler ultrasound imaging provides an image of spectra as velocity values (vertical axis) modulated by energy as a function of time (horizontal axis) for a gate location. The spectra may be used for studying fluid flow or tissue motion within a patient.
Sonographers frequently manually adjust Doppler gain, dynamic range, wall filter, persistence, temporal resolution, or other parameters of the spectral Doppler imaging. Some adjustments, such as the pulse repetition frequency (PRF) to control aliasing, require a system reconfiguration. During or because of the reconfiguration, the scanning is interrupted, resulting in a loss of previously acquired data and starting over of the spectral imaging. While the adjustments may be automated, the automation still results in an interruption in the workflow to activate and/or during reconfiguration to acquire the data for the adjusted PRF. Even after optimal settings are applied, the display trace (image of spectra) is either broken up (temporal gap for which no spectra are provided) or prior data from the previous PRF is removed from the image (start the spectral strip over).